When 3rd grade teacher Stacey McKinley moved into her new classroom at Belleville Intermediate School, she noticed something unusual at the front of the classroom. Instead of the usual whiteboard or chalkboard at the front of the room, she had a board that was half chalkboard and half whiteboard.
The different erasers and writing instruments required for each side of the board became cumbersome during lessons, so McKinley requested to have the chalkboard portion removed and replaced with a second whiteboard.
When the chalkboard was replaced, she noticed that her original whiteboard was bright white in color, but the new whiteboard that had replaced her chalkboard was a dull, gray color. She later found out that the bright white dry erase board had been purchased from a manufacturer named EverWhite, and the dull gray dry erase board had been purchased from a school supply catalog.
The new whiteboard soon became an obstacle during McKinley’s lessons. “I would write something such as a math lesson. Then, I would attempt to erase it, but you could still see the writing. I would try to write the next lesson on the board, but it was hard for my students to read what I was writing.” McKinley’s students continued to complain that they could not read lessons on the new whiteboard.
McKinley began using only the EverWhite whiteboard, which continually stayed white and erased very easily. McKinley explained, “The EverWhite board erased nicely without leaving behind any writing. The students could see much better and didn’t complain.”
McKinley’s tale of two whiteboards made its way to John Beil, Belleville’s director of facilities. For years, Beil had been ordering EverWhite whiteboards and resurfacing panels for Belleville School District. Beil hadn’t previously been aware that McKinley’s chalkboard was replaced with a non-EverWhite board. After looking at McKinley’s EverWhite board alongside her whiteboard purchased from a school supply catalog, Beil said, “There was a huge difference in quality. I always knew when ordering from EverWhite that the quality was there, especially since EverWhite offers a lifetime stain-free guarantee. But when you’re able to view an EverWhite board alongside an average whiteboard, you can instantly see the difference in quality.”
Previous to discovering EverWhite boards, the Belleville School District had tried using many different brands of whiteboards. According to Beil, “I haven’t found anything on the market better than EverWhite boards. My staff knows that once you erase an EverWhite board, it’s clean. There’s no ghosting. With other whiteboards, we’d often have to use more cleaners on them instead of just erasing them. And some couldn’t be completely cleaned. They just kept on ghosting.”
And McKinley’s gray board did just that — kept on ghosting.
At the start of the next school year, McKinley walked into her classroom and discovered that Beil had replaced the gray dry erase board with an EverWhite board over the summer. She was relieved that her classroom was now equipped with two dependable EverWhite boards. After experiencing firsthand the differences between an EverWhite board and an average whiteboard, McKinley said, “Don’t waste your money on any other brand.”